Ancient Greek on the Streets: Casual Phrases to Speak Like a 5th Century BCE Athenian!

[@AntiquityforAll]

This one was a little different to previous videos but please let me know if you'd like more language-based videos in the future! We're here to bring antiquity to life, whether by telling the stories of significant historical figures, epic mythology or ancient life. What would you like to see next!

[@seagrif]

I've tried a few times now to download the document you have linked in your show notes, but it's not working. Do you still have it hosted at the link you provided? I'd love to have a copy of it.

[@AntiquityforAll]

@@seagrif Realised my Lumin trial had ended so have moved the file over to Dropbox - link in the description. Let me know if the new one works! www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/a5nis8zechbou5tfq8mho/Casual-Greek.pdf?rlkey=3ho2hx0nk7bto87cij85xjutc&dl=0

[@seagrif]

@@AntiquityforAllIt worked just fine - thanks so much!

[@fractal_gate]

I just got back from ancient Greece and these worked great!

[@dimspil64]

As a Greek I want to thank you for your effort , but it would be wise to ask a Greek person first , you could avoid some mistakes. Most of the phrases can easily be understood by a modern Greek person. Keep doing this!!!

[@thanoskokkas152]

As a Greek I understood the meaning of the last "naughty" words :D Also, the crow related curse is still in use today in the form ¨Άϊ στο κόρακα!¨. Thanks for this video btw, it was great

[@yourpronounsarebs]

This guy fucked the pronunciation up so hard. Τα γαμησε όλα

[@ellinika-ez3ve]

!

[@TheCossak]

the only greek word one needs to know: malaka!

[@bellerophonneptuni1433]

Δέομαί σου, νὴ θεούς, οὐδέποτε πάλιν μὴ γράψον ἑρμήνευμά τι.

[@sopowae2189]

@@bellerophonneptuni1433 εύγε.

[@alexgarciamma]

ahh a pleasure to see you mysthios

[@johnl1262]

Malaka. Like you.

[@brettjohnson536]

@@alexgarciamma Was gonna say that! 😂

[@Kobzar3374]

Χαῖρε. I am not an ancient Greek speaker, and I am not even too sure of my knowledge of the ancient Greek language, which is one of the most awkward and unpredictable I have ever started to learn. I am listening to this video, and first of all I want to say thank you for your work and for sharing it, but I also would like to point out some minor details that can be improved: the expression for telling your name should be written ὄνομά μοι, instead of ὄνομα μοι (since μοι is an enclitic), and the one for asking how you are should be written πῶς ἔχεις; instead of πῶς ἐχεῖς; If I find something more, I shall let you know. Thank you one more time, keep up the good work, and ἔρρωσο.

[@martyroma606]

Thank you so much for your hard work! I recently started learning Greek again via Duolingo (I have Hellenic heritage, nevertheless that I am Bulgarian; many Bulgarians have Greek ancestors since we are neighbouring countries). Now I clearly see that there is a huge difference between Old and Modern Greek. But now I can clearly see how the language has evolved. Definitely the pronunciation has changed a lot and knowing how Modern Greek sounds like. Cheers!

[@creamcookies8022]

duolingo xDDD. how's the progress man? 6 months;)

[@Nervv-z8q]

Този не може да ги каже правилно като Гърч не разбирам нито една дума

[@bastianoperdomo]

Приятелю, за да научите новогръцки, препоръчвам приложението Language Transfer, това приложение съдържа аудиозаписи с уроци (120 урока), то е най-доброто, което съм виждал. Методът на обучение е устен, без текст. Научих се да говоря и да съставям изречения с по-малко от 7 урока

[@fifthpint4571]

Can’t thank you enough for the effort. Having spent more than a month in the Peloponnese this year, I really enjoyed this. Very educational, thank you

[@AntiquityforAll]

Very glad to hear it, thank you!

[@GRkillers]

incredible i always struggled in school as all of us receive classes of ancient greek for junior high and high school but this i can undestand perfectly and its quite close to the vernacular of modern many of them with slight alternations could be used today and if someone spoke like this i would feel like my grandma is speaking to me ''since she spoke kathareuousa and demotikh to me''

[@AntiquityforAll]

that's fascinating, I rarely hear about katharevousa! Really glad to have helped - I just don't believe the average Greek on the street would have spoken like Plato or Sophocles so it's great to know that it sounds so familiar - thanks for sharing!

[@isancicramon0926]

Great video ! (even if the wall background is a bit gloomy, for all the outdoors activities Athens may have honed). I think it speaks volumes about what philosophy has become that you mention Plato in passing (as a “serious writer”), when in fact, so many of his dialogues are like little plays, full of little phrases of people meeting and greeting each other. (Even if they are less colourful than Aristophane's ones).

[@dgrewar]

I've recently retired and am busy learing Ancient Greek with 'Alpha with Angela' on KZbin. Absolutely loving it and I'm making steady progress. But thank you so very much for this video which popped up on KZbin, I'm going to take notes and try practicing a few of these phrases on my upcomming holiday on Rhodes Island next week.

[@KT37915A]

You did a great job on this. Thanks for putting this together.

[@luyombojonathan6688]

More ancient Greek please

[@eugeniakatsafadou331]

This is such an underappreciated video! As a greek many of the words and phrases are very familiar and, with the modern pronunciation, some of them are still in use! Particularly, my grandpa still says "άι εις τον κόρακα!". The only thing I wanted to correct is that ει would have been pronounced as a long /eː/ sound. Also υ would have been pronounced as /y/, similar to ü in german or to the u in french. Overall great video, though, very informative and fun, liked and subscribed!

[@ENGSDCA]

Brave effort, lovely diction, but not without errors of grammar, transcription, and pronunciation.

[@TheAncientGeek]

I love it. Many thanks. At 6:48, I think εὑρίσκω takes a rough breathing as in "heuristics" and "(h)eureka" although the last didn't survive the English transliteration.

[@TheAncientGeek]

Also at 9:16 I believe it is "τί πράξοιμεν;" OR "τίνα πράξοιμεν;" (indefinite neuter, as in πρᾶγμα, πρᾶγματα). And either way the interrogative should be put in the accusative as an object of the πράξειν, so it should have been "τίνα [πράξιν, OR λόγον] πράξοιμεν"

[@TheAncientGeek]

Also 9:34 it just says "would you like to have ANY wine" that is "some [bottle of] wine from my cache." If you want to say "some wine" as in "a glass or a portion of wine" you have to use genitive: "ἆρα βούλει οἶνου πίνειν" (no need for article or indefinite pronoun"

[@TheAncientGeek]

At 9:36 if you mean to say "a cup of some wine" you should use the partitive genitive as in "βούλεὶ τινος oἶνου." More natural to say "βουλεί ὁλίγον τι οἶνου" but "βουλεί οἶνου ἔχειν," without any pronoun or article a noun turns into an indefinite quantity as in French: "Je veux du vin" Similarly at 9:53 you have to say "(ὀλίγον) ὕδατος χρῶμαι"

[@stevenschilizzi4104]

Χάιρε, ω φίλε μου! Τι μέγιστον δούλον εποίησας! (What a big amount of wirk you’ve done!) Σοι μέγαν χάριν έχω. (I don’t have an ancient Greek keyboard). This was fantastic. Please do some more. I’ve been looking for this for a long time, and this is the first thing that does it! Kudos and congrats! - Btw if you want more info on ancient pronunciation I’m sure you know of Luke Ranieri. He’s a passionate.

[@tonylarsan2682]

It's so funny hearing the Erasmic pronunciation. Modern Hellenes (in Hellas and Cyprus) would find the sound of deltas, thetas, gammas, phi's etc. of the video weird.

[@saschaforeal3009]

Wow thank you! Incredible video. Animation content background music. Everything is perfect.

[@Fragenius95]

Hello there. I wanted to download the document but it doesn't allow me because I think the link has expired. Would it be possibile to share it again?

[@sprc155]

Great great work dude. With your accent it sounds like a romance language!

[@evo3546]

Loved it🎉

[@user-sn6dz2ie4k]

Let me say the pronunciation is not accurate. Probably more closely related to modern Greek with small differentiations

[@gregoryrowe7366]

Thank you for this! Nice job with the Attic pronunciation. As an expression of gratitude ;-) here are are a couple of tiny errors I spotted: ὄνομά μοι, ὄνομά σοι (unless the pronouns are emphatic, in which case ὄνομα μοί, ὄνομα σοί) πρωΐα or πρῴα (unless you're Herodotus) τὸν ἀγῶνα

[@rogeliotoledo5821]

Very cool project, but there are a couple of minor gramatical mistakes you need to correct. In 9:15 for example it should be τί πράξωμεν. Τίς πράξοιμεν is incorrect. And there are some others regarding gender agreement, or verbal aspect.

[@AntiquityforAll]

Every day is a learning day, thanks for the pointers!

[@rogeliotoledo5821]

@@AntiquityforAll it’s great we can all learn from each other. I like that about KZbin a lot. Thanks for your videos!!

[@ariskritikos160]

Where did you find that Athens was a hive of international and multicultural activity? Where on earth did it come from?

[@cayk481]

they had an active verb form of speaking greek? 'Hellenizo'? I only know modern greek but that phrase sounds like 'I'm greeking'

[@AntiquityforAll]

That's right, Ἑλληνίζω was used by writers in the Classical period by Aristotle, Thucydides and Aeschines! I think there's even an 'Ἀττικίζω' which was introduced later to refer specifically to Attic Greek

[@jimmypellas5937]

Very interesting and entertaining. I note many people who speak modern Greek, argue that the pronunciation you use is incorrect. I disagree. The pronunciation has changed in 3000 years. Modern Greek speakers that imagine it should be spoken as they speak today are wrong. Keep up the good work!

[@Mitsouarou]

you are a funny one xD !

[@bellerophonneptuni1433]

Σύμφωνός σοί εἰμι, ὦ φίλε ἀγαθέ. καίτοι σχεδὸν καλῶς ἐχει τὴν ἀρχᾱϊκὴν συγχρονιστί τινος λέγοντος, ἐνηλλαγμένης τῆς φωνῆς τῆς παλαιᾶς ζώσης τῆς μὲν (αἰῶνι ἑνδεκάτῳ). λέγοιεν ἂν οἱ ἄνθρωποι ὡς ἂν θέλουσιν, ἐφ’ ὅσον ἡ αὐτοῖς φωνὴ ἔγκῡρός εστιν. ἔρῥωσο φίλτατε!

[@Kobzar3374]

Χαῖρε. In 10:12, "*τὴν δράμαν" is not correct, because δρᾶμα is a neuter noun, not a feminine one; on the other hand, it is the subject of the sentence, so it cannot be in the accusative case. I would rather say "ἐνόμισα ὡς τὸ δρᾶμα κάκιστον ἦν". Ἔρρωσο.

[@AntiquityforAll]

χαῖρε! Just wanted to say how much I appreciate the detail you’ve gone into over these last few comments. It’s fantastic work and an incredibly helpful learning experience! I don’t think I’ll be forgetting it’s δρᾶμα/δράματος in the future 🤦‍♂️

[@Kobzar3374]

@@AntiquityforAll Χαῖρε! Χάριν σοι ἔχω! Ἔρρωσο!

[@finngreek]

Thanks for putting this all together! I think some pronunciation/emphasis could be improved (eg: your κύων sounds like κοῦον), but overall I like the idea and I'd like to hear more.

[@Urdatorn]

Superb video! A small fun point regarding the phrase about not knowing Attic: if you say γλῶτταν like that, with ττ instead of σσ, you basically already know one of the major marks of the Attic dialect, and you can’t truly say you don’t know Attic! 😁

[@AntiquityforAll]

Excellent point! Maybe they'd completed just a few lessons on ancient Duolingo...?

[@Urdatorn]

@@AntiquityforAll Lol! Or on ancient Rosetta Stone? :D

[@Kobzar3374]

And, as for the potential answer to the question ἐπὶ πόσῳ; (= "how much does it cost?"), I think it would be better τὸ ἐπιτίμιον πεντέδραχμόν ἐστιν (for the sake of agreement between the noun and the adjective), rather than *πεντέδραχμους (where the accent is misplaced, on the other hand: it should be πεντεδράχμους).

[@LadyBeesTOYBOX]

Love this!! Thank you!! 💜

[@FreeState.21ST]

Hello fellow learner, χαίρετε συνάδελφε, I must say you guys are doing an impressive job, συγχαρητήρια για την εξαιρετική δουλειά, I appreciate the effort and professionalism on this project. I could give you some tips on pronunciation since I noticed you don't feel so certain due to English being a latin based language and I know it's tough to attempt reading the Hellenic alphabet but you were doing good overall. I'll just point out a few things written in simple new Greek form because my keyboard don't have all the punctuations etc. For example in "Όνομα σοι τι εστίν;" think of σοι as σι just like you would pronounce τι. Unless there is tonality σόι, it's not pronounced as . Same logic when you say όνομά μοι(again this how you'd write it in today's greek) and even ειμί which would be pronounced onoma mi and imi with the same tonalities. Also for ναι, ει σοι δοκεί think of ναι written as νε so νε, ι σι δοκί as pronunciation. Maybe all of this is of no importance or maybe you find it helpful, anyway keep it up. Καλή δύναμη εύχομαι

[@enyalios316]

He is pronouncing it according to the erasmian conventions used in western European countries. They're at times very flawed but still an attempt at reconstruction. Modern Greek and ancient didn't have the same pronunciation.

[@bellerophonneptuni1433]

Ἔργον ἐπιφανέστατον! καίτοι γ’ ἐν μέρει οἶδα τὴν γλῶτταν, ἱκανὰ ἔμαθον σήμερον πράγματα! εὔχομαί σοι τουτονὶ τοὖργον ποιῶν διαγάγεσθαι· ἔρρωσο φίλτατε!

[@niklimnat1061]

i love how google can translate ancient greek better than it can translate modern greek sometimes, especially in other dialects like cypriot

[@Marble8King]

As a speaker of Modern Greek I fully understood this one as well as the entire video. For a language spanning 34 centuries the degree of continuity between Modern Greek and Ancient Greek is ridiculously high.

[@xk1390]

Is it true the Greek alphabet has its origins in the Egyptian hieroglyphs?

[@AntiquityforAll]

I believe so! Phoenician (some say) was inspired by old Canaanite which was in turn derived by hieroglyphs. Going forward Phoenician went on to inspire Greek, which passed to the Etruscans, which passed to the Romans in the form of Latin to the alphabet many in the world use today

[@Tubulus3546]

Well done! (There is a garbled transcription 'opsaiteraiteron' instead of 'husteron' in "we should celebrate with something later this evening!' :) ).

[@AntiquityforAll]

You know, you’re the first person to catch that! Thank you for pointing it out, I have absolutely no idea how that got there. Ευχαριστώ!

[@rl2552]

nice now I’ll be set next time I’m in Athens in 480 BC

[@imlost19]

just don't get kicked into any wells

[@Kobzar3374]

Χαῖρε. At 9:28, in the sentence τι δράμα θεάσθων, I think that the indefinite pronoun τι cannot be at the beginning of a sentence, that the noun *δράμα must be written δρᾶμα, and that the imperative form θεάσθων does not fit here, because it is the 3rd person plural, and for saying "let us watch" you would need the 1st person plural. Since there is no 1st person in the imperative, you may want to use the subjunctive, and the whole thing would be: δρᾶμά τι θεασώμεθα. Would that be OK for a native speaker of ancient Greek? Who knows! Ἔρρωσο.

[@HufflepuffsPanda]

WONDERFUL help! I'm doing a presentation on Ancient Greek insults and expletives for class 😂😂😂

[@RiccardoRadici]

I've noticed that you pronounce ζ as /dzd/ (in IPA symbols) and ει as /ei/. Could I ask you where did you learn such pronunciation and why do you think it is correct?

[@Thedeepseanomad]

"Ei" is as far as I understand, wrong for the Attic pronunciation unless you go even further back in history. Luke made a good video about it on Polymathy

[@RiccardoRadici]

@@Thedeepseanomad I've already seen the video and listened to the argumentation of Ranieri. I wanted to know the reasons behind this different reconstruction. Thanks anyway!

[@olbiomoiros]

The lines on top of ē ō in the transliterations are not supposed to be accents. They denote vowel length. In many cases you misaccented some words because you probably thought those were accents. For example in the word ἡμέρα (hēmérā)- there is a long e sound (ē) and a short accented e. The a is also long.

[@MELAPOTAMOS]

the word hysteron is wrong transliterated on 09:10/12:24 Thank you, I really like your video. Hopefully you posted more. I´ll subscribe and check for more ancient Greek classes.

[@fernandokuzunoha8844]

theres no prostagma?

[@genesisbustamante-durian]

1:12 yeah, I was about to write that the answer may be found in Aristophanes' plays.

[@greek_sahab]

Such an interesting video. Some of them sound funny to a modern Greek ear like mine. For instance πολυτελέστατον which meant too expensive in ancient Greek, means very luxurious in modern. By the way I don't really think Romeika is close to ancient Greek. It's as close as most dialects. Every time we find archaic elements in some dialect we are quick to say "omg they speak ancient Greek!"

[@AntiquityforAll]

That is true - got to concede a lot of people do jump to compare dialects when really there are clear signs of archaic elements throughout the language. Another commenter somewhere below mentioned that their grandparent spoke katharevousa which was incredible to hear

[@jaydiggles3596]

Woah if your from Greece that's pretty cool 😎

[@atlantic_love]

Your volume is too low.

[@heroduelist9242]

The word επαινώ is still same in modern Greek and means to praise from the verb επαινεω..if you want to say "no thanks" you would say ουχ ηυχαριστω which in modern is όχι ευχαριστώ

[@AntiquityforAll]

It’s a strange one for sure, this was taken straight from Aristophanes’ Frogs to politely refuse something. I welcome any insight as to why he’d use this word though

[@timothyahernRoxyCat]

Well, on my next trip to the 5th century I will know how to say that one!

[@bobbob-vu2fs]

your accent sounds more like latin than greek to me or to be more specific that fake Italian accent at times

[@Kobzar3374]

Χαῖρε. I think that "what shall we do?" is better translated as τί πράξοιμεν; or τί πράξομεν;, because τίς is the nominative singular masculine and feminine, so it is not adequate for translating "what" with the function of direct object…

[@TMPOUZI]

In Attic dialect αι was not pronounced aee, it was plain e

[@yannisdoganis9108]

That erasmian pronunciationion is unbelievable...

[@saarce6126]

The "dog-faced drunk" one is actually from the Iliad

[@SkyDarmos]

Why do you use falling tones when the tone mark says rising?

[@jamiel6005]

that’s not a tone marker, it’s a vowel length marker

[@SkyDarmos]

@@jamiel6005 No. Ancient Greek had tones, just like Chinese.

[@Thrallsbuddy]

"But that's too expensive" seems weird in male form haha. Anyway great video and your accent is quite good

[@dree2295]

It's the insults at the end for me!

[@Kobzar3374]

As for "I want to buy this," I think it is better ἐγὼ τοῦτο ὠνήσομαι, rather than ἐγὼ τοῦτον ὠνήσομαι, since τοῦτο is the neuter form, while τοῦτον is the masculine one (unless you would want to buy a male slave, which was possible in those times…). The same applies to the way of saying "but that is too expensive:" in ἀλλὰ ἐκεῖνος πολυτελέστατος, we have the masculine forms, but it should rather be ἀλλ᾽ἐκεῖνο πολυτελέστατον, with the neuter ones.

[@stefanosprokopis6974]

I'm going to use these words in the taxi when I'm talking to the customers

[@MrPizza247]

It would appear that ει was sounded like an i sound as interesting. We know that because irene is written in greek as ειρήνη.

[@MarkusLeistad]

khaire was actually pronouncesed "Chiare" " Ki-A-Re" or "K-ye-re"

[@JanuaryMoon]

Well done for your video, it's a very nice try and a big job! Congratulations! I do recognise, however, a problem in your pronunciation and that is because you consider the ancient Greek language a dead language, while it would help you if you connected ancient Greek with modern Greek which is its indivisible and natural evolution through the centuries. For example the ancient Greeks were saying: "ἡμέρα καλή" and the Greeks now are saying: "καλημέρα". The smooth breathing diacritic mark above the letter "η" of word "ημέρα" it means that you have to pronounce without an english "H" in the beginning of the letter. On the contrary the rough breathing diacritic mark above some greek letters shows you that you have to pronounce an english "H" with the letter. For example the name "Ἑλένη" was written in ancient Greek ΗΕΛΕΝΕ or as the English is writing: "Helen". If you have a Greek friend around you go to the trouble of asking him the pronunciation of the greek words. He may no longer use the points of intonation of the Alexandrian philosophers when he is writing his language, but he still speaks the same language as his ancestors and pronounces the word "νύξ", accusative case "νυκτός", as "nix" and not "noux". And he still says "νύχτα" from "νύκτα" with dissimilation (xt) from (kt). Have a nice day!

[@eleftheria9179]

On of the most difficult things to understand when you are not a Hellene is the double letters and how they are pronounced from ancient times till nowadays. For example ei isn't pronounced e I,but I! Oi is also I,not o i. You are somewhat close to the pronunciation and I know it's difficult for you ,but you need to know that. For example my name, an ancient word which means liberty Ελευθερία. It's not pronounced Eleithería but Eleftheria,because ε υ is pronounced ef or ev, depending on the word. Thank you for trying, keep learning.

[@AntiquityforAll]

Thank you! I’d love to hear your thoughts on my pronunciation in later videos, especially those using Greek sources from the Roman imperial period

[@eleftheria9179]

@@AntiquityforAll hello friend! I just have a little question...why do you call the channel "αρχαιότητος για όλους " The translation for antiquity for all is αρχαιότητα για όλους or if you want it in ancient Greek αρχαιότις δι' όλους. When you write αρχαιότητος it means " of the antiquity for all".

[@AntiquityforAll]

@@eleftheria9179 Now that is helpful! I think I was going for the genitive to convey 'About Antiquity for All' but I will amend on your suggestion!

[@eleftheria9179]

@@AntiquityforAll oh,I see...OK look,yes it is the genitive of the word αρχαιότητα. But if you want to say " about antiquity" you will go with "περί αρχαιότητος δι' όλους "(ancient Greek) or "περί αρχαιότητας για όλους"(modern Greek). Or you can just go with the exact translation of "antiquity for all " which is "αρχαιότητα για όλους". Hope to have helped 😉

[@AntiquityforAll]

@@eleftheria9179 You did, thank you!

[@rafifaufananda1080]

χαῖρε! I've tried to access the link to the PDF, but it doesn't work. Is there any way to get the PDF. χαρίν σοι ἔχω.

[@gio.4790]

Sorry, but a normal educated greek person, would understand everything, this language is not dead

[@dimspil64]

3'07 ΧΑΙΡΕ (KHERE) , actually means "Be glad" (I wish you to be glad in your life).

[@francescaemc2]

Have just subscribed. I am native Italian speaker with, alas, zero interest in Latin. Please more Attic Greek. And... do give names of curses. I don't think they were prudes ;) Great work!

[@AntiquityforAll]

Much appreciated thank you!

[@francescaemc2]

@@AntiquityforAll parakalo...whatever that is in Homeric ;)

[@dimspil64]

11'04" Αλαζών (Alazon) in modern Greek means "Arrogant".

[@2Hot2]

Just water, please, I have to ride my horse home!

[@paliomlkas]

Probably someone already said it, but first of all let me say it was an amazing video! I really loved it, because as you say at the end, to imagine how ordinary People used to sound like, so for that I that i thank you. As to the reading wise, there are words in Greek and Ancient Greek that have inside letters like εί αί,. For example my name is Βασίλειος Vasileios, in order to read it correctly you have to read the "εί" as one, Which in this case sounds like an "I" so when you say my name you should say Vasilios and not Vasil-e-i-os. Try to do that with all the words that have inside "εί" and "αί" Btw the "αί" is e. Not a-i. For example Βούλωμαι, the word is Vulome when you read it. I hope I've helped you with that. Keep on the great work, I'm Greek and I loved the video.

[@tellyhalkias4653]

You are correct, patrioti, if using Modern Greek pronunciation of diphthongs; however there is much debate today in the academic world--as well as evidence---that ancient Greeks did not pronounce the diphthongs as such. I, too find it hard ti listen to such without trying to correct it but recently have begun reading more scholarship on this matter and I have got to say, I've been really surprised at how little we modern Greeks are aware of all this---even we who studied ancient Greek either in school or at uni.

[@hmldjr]

Very good.

[@hudsonbakke8836]

It sounds based on the various pronunciations you have chosen for each letter than you're going for a pronunciation close to ~600 BC, in addition to the fact that you're following the pitch accents. Overall it sounded quite good, but I noticed a few minor inconsistencies. You for some reason pronounce θ always as an aspirated stop, but for χ and φ you sometimes pronounced them as fricatives rather than stops. Just to be clear: at that point in time in ancient greek, all 3 letters were full aspirated stops, and they had not begun to transition into fricatives yet. You pronounce the pairs of ε, η, and ο, ω seemingly exactly the same, except for length. In ancient greek, however, they were pronounced with slightly different vowel qualities. That being said however, that is a very subtle and hard distinction to master and I don't exactly blame you for not getting it perfect. However, I did notice that you pronounced ει as a diphthong /ei/. Afaik, it is supposed to just be pronounced as a longer version of ε (contrasting with η, which had a different quality altogether). Lastly, your pronunciation of ζ sounded a little bit off. I think in the rough time period you were emulating, it was pronounced /zd/, but you seem to pronounce it more as /tsd/. That may have been an older pronunciation I am not aware of, but by this time it had already changed to just /zd/.

[@AntiquityforAll]

Thank you for the highly informative feedback! It's always great to learn from the little details

[@batteryjuicy4231]

in modern greek we pronounce ει, οι, αι as one letter is this the same in ancient greek?

[@crybaby7613]

I try , as a Greek to write in Ancient Greek as much as I can and people don’t understand me 😂

[@pierreabbat6157]

"την δραμαν"; δραμα is neuter. But Δραμα (modern Greek place name) is feminine. They "teach" plays in the scene?

[@alkishadjinicolaou5831]

Reminds me of a Greek priest preaching in church.

[@Agruuss]

wait, i thought ''ζ'' was just pronounced as ''z'' not ''zd''

[@eZgr]

Its easy to understand 90% if you speak modern greek

[@dimspil64]

7'43" I am not sure if this one is correct. Επαινώ (Epaino) in modern Greek means "I praise".

[@jarousskyphilippe5831]

ΗΜΕΡΑ should be pronounced as "hemera" not "emera"

[@AntiquityforAll]

excellent spot, thank you! Absolutely right - 'good day' should be ἡμέρα καλή with a rough breathing on the eta (η), so as Jaroussky corrected it, pronounced 'hēmera kalē', not 'ēmera'

[@georgepaliozahos2960]

Συγχαρητήρια

[@lefterismagkoutas4430]

there is another dialect that is close to ancient greek which is standard modern greek

[@golgumbazguide...4113]

Explore Golgumbaz with Guide Jahangir, South India 🇮🇳

[@acgamer1916]

Im not sure on your pronunciation of χ

[@demetst760]

As a Greek, I thought I was prepared for the bad pronunciation of words after the warning... but I wasn't.

[@davidscwimer1974]

Why are all these words still in the Greek language today ???

[@ninelaivz4334]

Because they are essentially the same language. I have never studied ancient Greek but meaning-wise some sentences I understood 100% others 0%. However those of 0% I could still pick out words and recognise roots of words but not the meaning within that sentence. Had I maintained my study of the greek bible I would no doubt have understood some more. Also, listening to it without seeing the written words, to me at least, makes it much less intelligible because of the different pronunciation, especially since today's diphthongs were articulated as separate vowels in ancient Greek, eg "ai" today is an e sound (as in bed) instead of an "a" followed an "i" sound (as in eye).

[@deinhaus9925]

Because modern Greek and ancient Greek is one language with different stages

[@Nikossellasd7]

80 present we use today and we can esaly understand all

[@jo.p1288]

Έχουμε τόσες κοινές λέξεις αλλά νομίζω καταλαβαίνουμε σε μια πρόταση λίγα πράγματα γενικά ,για το τι θέλουν να πουν δηλαδή,ενώ περισσότερα καταλαβαίνουμε ακούγοντας τα ελληνικά των ευαγγελίων

[@TMPOUZI]

Τα καταλαβαίνεις καλυτερα επειδη τα ευαγγελια ειναι γραμμενα στην κοινή ελληνιστικη, η οποια ηταν σαφως απλοποιημενη μορφη υστερων ελληνικών και απο την οποια εξελιχθηκαν τα βυζαντινά και επειτα τα μοντερνα ελληνικα. Επισης μην ξεχναμε οτι τα ευαγγελια δεν γραφτηκαν και απο τους πιο μορφωμενους ανθρωπους του κοσμου, η μητρική γλωσσα των οποιων ισως δεν ηταν καν τα ελληνικα. Γραφτηκαν στα ελληνικα για λογους διαδοσης αφου στην ευρυτερη περιοχη της μεσογειου ηταν οπως ειναι τα αγγλικα σημερα

[@Peter_Spana]

Χαίρετε (Khaire) is a modern Greek word too. We say that today in Modern Greek Χαιρετίσματα

[@stavroscho7798]

No offence but i would really recommend you asking for a greek to pronounce those phrases. I understand that it is very hard to read them but just going for it isnt the solution. At least put them on google translate you know what mean. you pronounced it khaire while its chere( put χαίρε on google translate and listen to it). On top of that many of them were just wrong, like never ever existed. edit: also why is every Ηη just straight up pronounced as e

[@SJ-ym4yt]

Is chere not the modern Green pronunciation…?

[@AugustineKizis]

Great work but your pronunciation sounds english. English language don't have some of the sounds and it is kinda hard to do the greek sounds correctly. (Example: μαλα χαιρε - You said mala ka-i-re but is it like MALA HAIRE - the sound like H (Hotel) So it isounds like MALA HAIRE .

[@AntiquityforAll]

Curse of the British I’m afraid! I try in later videos to match the sound of the age, so where koine or later Hellenistic Greek pronunciation is called for I do try to replicate it (and I have to say it’s a lot more fun)

[@iggo45]

This is the curse of phonology. With exact same rules applied for pronunciation, even with erasmian pronunciation, which we Greeks hate so much, a Spaniard speaker, with his Spanish phonology, would of been more accepted to Greek listeners. For you, as an English man, I must say it was more agreeable to hear. When Americans are doing the same thing, I imagine suddenly of drunk cowboys spitting tobacco on the floor. So the problem is not the rules of pronunciation, but the phonemes a person can reproduce. Nice video. I give it 7,5/10 Ερρωσθε και αγαλιασθε.

[@PorfirioRubirosa22]

It is pretty hard to learn ancient greek directly without understanding the structure of modern greek...

[@fridolo]

I am sorry but you got so many things wrong. oi = like an e , ai is am ae, so moi is spoken like "mi" soi like "si" There were a lots of ees in greek : oi, h, i etc..u sipmy read it wrong

[@enyalios316]

Yes, in modern Greek. Not in the pronunciation of classical attic.

[@horror11]

all this nonsense with erasmian pronounciation must stop. not only a regular nonnative greek speaker cant pronounce modern greek correctly but u can bet 1 million that a nonnative greek speaker cant pronounce ancient greek either which is even further away of modern daily spoken greek. why are nongreek so obsessed to pronounce a total foreign language to them with their own nongreek dialects is beyond me. greek is a beautiful language an ancient greek spoken by a native greek speaker will be the closest u will ever hear what coul have sounded in ancient greece. the fluency and almost singinglike speech of an native speaker speaking ancient greek throws out every erasmian artificial sounding pronounciation. i see no greek native speaker EVER using erasmian pronounciation, this is not because of pride but simply no ancient greek professor and teacher agrees with the erasmian pronounciation, it sounds to alien and almost like a foreign language while pronounced in modern greek it sounds like greek because it is greek. erasmus had to deal with a language he never spoke like a native and tried to make it possible for nongreek to read out loud ancient greek texts with letters different than the latin letters. he had to listen to native greek speakers how they pronounce greek in general but everboy knows that listen to a foreign word and trying to repeat it corectly so that it sounds like native is almot impossible. the worst parts are the oi ai and ei , even though we know they ws pronounced differently there is no way greek pronounce it like erasmus.

[@Mitsouarou]

moi is sounded exactly as "me" in english and means "mine or my" depending on the sense ! . so ... you are doing it all wrong from the start dude .... but you are closer than others who are clueless in this kind of field but have opinion ! ps in order to pronounce moi like you did then it should be written as " mӦi or m'oi" with a tone on o .those two dots in greek or a tone , means that the letter is seperated from the one following , if they are not there then oi is sounded like "e" . eimi is sounded like "eme/imi" etc . also H is sounded like E in english . example , MH in greek means "dont" . well it is sounded like english "me " and still does ... !

[@ii699]

If I was about a year or so ago, I would agree with you. I remember watching an Imperetor Rome video and the player kept pronouncing "basileus" as "mpasileus". He was trying to say the words as correctly as he could, so I wrote a comment, telling him that it would sound like "vasilefs" instead of "mpasileus". I eventually learned that I was wrong and he was probably much closer to how the word was pronounced back then. What I think triggers most of us Greeks is when we hear that Ancient Greek is a dead languege (I think we feal like foreingers are trying to alienate us from our heretage and history) but what I think they really should/want to say is that the pronouncation is "dead". Because when you hear ancient greeks, it's really hard to understand almost anything. But if you read it, it's much easier. Of course the more ancient you go the harder it is to understand what you read, but we still can see the connections to some modenr greek words. But just so we ...flex our history a little bit (I am not an expert, so I can be totally wrong but I am Greek so I will flex anyway) our modern pronouncation is based on late Byzantium, so by itself is quite ancient (around a millenia old) but as someone once said, when foreingers say "ancient greeks" they mean ancient-er. And it's not that hard to either hear or read and understand koine. (reading the New Testiment it's doable and my opinion about hearing is based on this video kzbin.info/www/bejne/o2TGg3Wrg8eZp8k - I wasn't around in the Byzantine times...) If you want to hear an attempt on reconstructing attic greek by a Greek person search for Podium-Arts. You will hardly understand anything without reading but it's fun. (Also here is another "how's the greek" video for Alexander the Great, just for fun. kzbin.info/www/bejne/oamzdoFmjMRlaZI)

[@Mitsouarou]

@@ii699 if you really want to hear ancient greek language then listen to orthodox church's psalms ... they are written in ancient greek .. and still spoken that way xD .. and still used every day ! so ancient greek are not dead language at all ! i say this because you mentioned Byzantine empire .

[@ii699]

@@Mitsouarou Psalms would be written at best in around 300AD. What he is trying to recreate is about 700 years older than that.

[@hmldjr]

@@Mitsouarou Church Greek is not the Greek of 5th century Greece.

[@hmldjr]

Where did you learn your ancient Greek in the coffee house?

[@vitalic_drms]

salvete, omnes !

[@emptyfueltank]

The dumbest thing schools in Greece do is not teach us the correct pronounciations of things like η, ει, ου, αι, θ, β,γ etc because in modern greek there are so many letters and diphthongs that sound nothing like the modern ones even though they are written the same. For example, we would pronounce χαῖρε as "heh-reh" because "χ" in modern greek sounds like "h" and "αi" sounds like eh (similar to ε). I really put effort back in highschool and felt good being able to understand and "read" them correctly. Imagine the surprise when I found out that I could barely understand the context when I heard the correct pronounciations, as if I just started learning another language. That's like teaching math using random symbols instead of numbers.

[@Lausanamo]

Finally someone gets it. Most greeks hate Erasmus for "corrupting" the greek language when he only made an educated guess on the pronunciation of ancient greek. Greek ultranationalists won't even question why ι, η, υ, ει, οι, υι are all pronounced the same, as if ancient greeks would invent useless letters to make the language harder. Anyone thinking for a minute would realize these sounds used to be pronounced differently.

[@emptyfueltank]

@@Lausanamo They did teach us for example that there's a difference in Ω and O but iirc that's about the most notable difference we were taught, Ω is deeper and more pronounced, Ο is sharper. That doesn't even begin to cover the actual differences tho... and you don;'t even have to be a nationalist or sth to be stuck with this mindset, its just that when you are taught by actual ancient greek literature teachers you automatically expect them to be 100% correct so when a non greek professor says anything different you expect them to be in the wrong... I was the same and I'm not even a spec nationalist.

[@coinstar2445]

Why did we start speaking English?

[@ΒασίληςΒλάχος-τ3κ]

Why is the beginning of the video so sad in tone? No people can possibly speak the same way for 3000 years obviously, and to me the fact that modern greek exists, which is not only the direct disendand but also relatively close to ancient Greek is enough for me. And speaking the language I could understand the jist of most of the phrases, the vast majority of the vocabulary has either stayed the same, or changed meaning to different extents.

[@georgetsapekis]

Very nice video, the accent and tonality unfortunately are very off. Except modern Greeks maybe only Spanish people can keep a correct accent, as it happens with modern Greek as well. Probably due to the fact the the Greek language has a very flat accent and similar ways of syllable structure.